Strictly speaking this is off-topic, but I believe it is an important issue so I am going to beg forgiveness rather than ask permission.

In my view, one of the biggest issues with concealed carry has been the prohibition against carrying in national parks. As users of this forum know, calling 911 REALLY does not work in the backcountry. Under pressure from Congress, the park service has a proposal to make concealed regulations in parks consistent with that in state parks. So forget carrying in Yosemite, but you would be legal in Big Bend and Yellowstone.

Of course the park service itself, plus the anti-gun lobby, is claiming this will allow poaching, etc. I believe we need to make our voice heard, and urge you to put in your comments.

The first link below is to comment on the issue. The second is to the NRA’s article about the situation.

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?ma...t&o=090000648053d497

http://www.nraila.org/legislation/read.aspx?id=4017

Thanks.

I have already commented and would encourage everyone else to do so too.

Just wrote a lengthy comment.
Charlie

I will not comment further except to say that I consider it my right to able to defend myself anywhere I go.....the national parks are ours....something this damn government does not seem to understand....JPFO has a slogan - dial 911 and die....better to be a violator than a dead putz.
National Park Service

This old man finds it depressing to read these posts. I well recall in the period of 1957- aproximately 1962 that I entered US National parks by car with a pistol (always in the glove compartment of the car)and for which I had an unrestricted NY carrying permit. I always explained on entering the Park that I had a pistol. I would listen to almost a bored monotone from the ranger at the gate about not using the pistol to shoot at any wild life -and all safety precautions to observe. (Just once at Glacier National Park was I ever asked to show the pistol permit {maybe because it bordered Canada which, today, prohibits pistols, but didn't then if memory serves} and to have someone match up the serial numbers against the pistol) Nobody ever called out the SWAT team to take down this dangerous intruder) (Sigh) Times really have changed!

gerrys375,

Need to be careful we don't get into a sort of an apples/oranges comparison.

Firearms in a vehicle, as long as they are unloaded and encased, have always been legal to transport in the NPs if the state laws also permit it. I've done it at least a dozen times. And that is still the rule as far as I know.

This discussion mostly concerns CCW permits and being able to carry loaded fireams anywhere in the NP, including the backcountry, not while just driving in a NP. Possessing a firearm other than IN a vehicle is something that has been illegal for decades. -TONY

you are correct. The law stated that loaded guns were not allowd in the park. That was at Yellowstone, Glacier, and the Grand Tetons. That has been my experience.

A CCW or even an open carry in the back country would be a welcome change for sure.

I commented and thanks for posting the link. It's been too long since I've been out to Big Bend and I'm not about to hike around unarmed.

Outdoor Writer:

I appreciate your point about not being allowed to carry a handgun in a NP while outside the vehicle. ( Never having camped out or "hiked" in a NP, I never,therefore, was in violation of regs - but I sure as heck do feel that people in the back country (In my time, there were still grizzlies in Yellowstone and certainly in Glacier)should be allowed to carry a heavy caliber pistol. Oh, well, I know I'm just spitting into the wind considering nowadays anti-gun culture. Anyway, thanks for the info. (BTW, I do have to say that the pistol in my car glove compartment was definitely always loaded and yet I don't recall anyone ever asking me if the pistol was loaded. Even in Glacier, where I actually had to produce the pistol and my permit so that the ranger could match up the numbers, I had no issue with him about the fact that the pistol had been loaded when I took it out of the glove compartment { and, of course, unloaded by me right in front of him before we went through the routine} From what you mention about the regs, I guess I was lucky!)

Why the hec did he give a dam about the SN# numbers on it?
Not all states require a permit/licence....to carry.

gerrys375,

Well, there are even more grizzlies in YNP now than there were in "your time."

In reality, there are few problems with them, however. If I recall, the last attack involved a wildlife photographer -- now dead -- who pushed the envelope with a big boar grizz. Before that, a female NP biologist was attacked while doing some research. She survived.

And yes, you were lucky that your loaded firearm in your vehicle didn't result in a confiscation or citation. The park ranger must have been in a good mood that day.

In a somewhat related and amusing aside, in the late 1980s, I had driven to BC to hunt moose and caribou north of Liard Hot Springs. After the hunt, I left the antlers and well-salted hides there with the outfitter while I headed to Denali NP in AK to shoot wildlife pix.

On the way home, I picked up my stuff. The caribou antlers went inside my camper shell, but I had to leave room for the rest of my gear and for me to sleep. So the hides were put into a heavy fiber-reinforced bag, which I tied to the underside of my Coleman Scanoe that was mounted upside down on a roof rack. I fastened the 60" moose antlers to the top of the canoe.

My plan was to stop by YNP for some elk pix before heading to Durango, Colo. where my oldest son was getting married in a few days.

Right after I crossed into Montana near Cutbank, a black pick-up got on my tail and eventually lights in the grill began flashing. It was a MT game warden. He checked my Canadian paperwork, and after having a nice chat, I was on my way again.

I entered YNP through the gate at West Yellowstone, and the gal in the booth never mentioned anything about the highly visible moose antlers. BUT...I hadn't gone three miles before a park ranger pulled me over, checked my paper work and went on his way.

Unfortunately, that was only the first of four stops that morning. By now I was getting just a bit annoyed with it all. On the 4th stop, I finally said to the ranger something like:

"Look, I know all of you guys have radios in your vehicles. So can you please do me a favor and put out an all-points bulletin to tell every ranger that there's a blue Nissan pickup with a green Scanoe and moose antlers on top that has already been checked four times. So leave him be to carry on his visit."

The ranger laughed and said, "I'll do just that."

That was the last time I was stopped over the next two days. -TONY

IIRC there is a big difference between NP and National Forests. It's frustrating that two states trust me to carry but that doesn't extend to certain areas.BTW there has now been a mountain lion killing in NM !

vinnyg

Perhaps the ranger wanted to match up serial numbers with a permit because he saw the NY license plates on my car. Even 50 years ago, it was well known that NY had a strict pistol permit law. Since I was admitting possession of a pistol, he may have just wanted to establish that I was "legal" as a New Yorker in my possession of a pistol -and thereby also establishing that I was unlikely to be anything other than what I said I was - a New Yorker in possession of a pistol. I see your point but it seems to me that a law enforcement officer was simply "checking up" on my bona fides.

Tony:

Great story! (I confess that you have more guts than me. I was always very respectful and very quiet to the guy with a badge!)

Was the requirement that a firearm be unloaded in existence around 1957-60 or so? I don't know. I think I must have even reloaded the pistol, also in front of the ranger. {I simply never had a pistol around me that was unloaded in those days. {No children in the house}

Anyway, I much enjoyed your story.

gerrys375,

I'd only be guessing if I said the loaded weapon law was in effect back then because I only became aware of it in the mid-1970s when I started going to YNP each Sept. to take elk pix during the rut.

So it very well could be that the law wasn't in effect until after your visit. I just can't say for sure.

Even though I finally had enough, I was actually respectful to the last ranger. I already mentioned that he was the 4th one to check me that day. And he pretty much agreed that enough was enough at that point. -TONY

quote:

Originally posted by gerrys375:
maybe because it bordered Canada which, today, prohibits pistols

Canada doesn't prohibit pistols.

Frans

quote:

Originally posted by Frans Diepstraten:

quote:

Originally posted by gerrys375:
maybe because it bordered Canada which, today, prohibits pistols

Canada doesn't prohibit pistols.

Frans

It does if the pistol belongs to a U.S. citizen who tries to cross into Canada with it. -TONY

Thank you, Tony, for answering for me about pistols in Canada. Certainly it was so when I was bear hunting in Nipissing District (Ontario) for years during the '80s and early '90s. It may be that the poster meant that pistols were not prohibited in Canada during the period I spoke of (1957-60 or so)-and I just don't know. Anyway, as I have mentioned, I think the ranger was "checking me out" because I had admitted possession of a pistol and I was from NY -which had a strict law about owning pistols. (This correspondence reminds me that I had checked with my local NY State Police barracks about the idea of carrying a pistol at all and they had checked for me. The sum total of their advice, as I remember was, don't get into any accidents inside a big city, in some states don't "conceal" the pistol and otherwise tell every law enforcement officer I met that I had a pistol -even before saying Hello. Yeah, I gathered they were maybe half kidding, but I got the idea!